Brooklyn Beckham Finally Answers the Critics Who Say He Doesn't Do Anything

For years, the internet's favourite running joke has been that Brooklyn Beckham doesn't really do anything. This week, on a stage at New York's Tribeca Festival, the eldest Beckham child delivered his rebuttal — insisting the half-decade in which the world assumed he was drifting was actually spent quietly building a hot sauce business.

The 27-year-old appeared at Tribeca X, the festival's brand-storytelling strand, for a panel titled From Passion to Product: Building a Culinary Brand That Lasts, alongside Cloud23 chief executive Jeff Day and moderator Claire Saffitz. Beckham has long been needled by the perception that — as he once summed up the criticism himself — "Brooklyn doesn't do anything", and his answer has remained consistent: the years since he turned 21 went into developing his condiment brand behind the scenes.

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Born of a Very Boozy Evening

The origin story is disarmingly honest. By Beckham's own telling, Cloud23 began the night he and wife Nicola Peltz Beckham got "really drunk one night" and decided to try making hot sauce from an online tutorial. The sweet jalapeño flavour came first; the next morning, sober research convinced him there was a gap in the market for a genuinely high-end, organic hot sauce in a bottle worth displaying. The brand — named in part after his father David's famous number 23 shirts — launched in 2024 as a Whole Foods exclusive at around £15 a bottle, and has since expanded to Erewhon and Amazon.

The ambitions stretch well beyond two flavours. Beckham has spoken of building out seven to ten condiments under the Cloud23 umbrella, from spicy mayo to hot honey, and perhaps one day a restaurant. "In five years I would love to have a successful condiment brand," he said at launch — and in Day, a veteran of General Mills and Hershey, he has hired serious industry pedigree to help get there.

From Punchline to Product

It has been a winding road. Beckham shot a Burberry campaign at 17, published a photography book at 18, and in 2022 fronted Cookin' With Brooklyn, the web series that became a byword for nepo-baby excess when reports claimed each episode cost 100,000 dollars and required a crew of 62. The hot sauce era has earned him rather more respect, including festival appearances alongside the likes of Rachael Ray on the American food circuit.

All of it has played out against a painful backdrop: the public rift with David and Victoria, whom he has accused of putting the family brand before his marriage — allegations his parents have firmly denied. A New York festival stage, talking about a company he built himself, is perhaps the clearest sign yet of a son determined to stand on his own. Whatever becomes of the condiment empire, the old joke suddenly carries less bite than his habanero.